Gieseke wants to redefine the Legislature’s conversation

District 19A election

February 11, 2013

ST. PETER - The three candidates vying in the Minnesota House district 19A special election are taking dramatically different approaches to messaging and spending in their campaigns. A detail analysis of these elements provides rich details on each candidate's view on legislative topics.

A Declaration of

Independence

Article Photos

Tim Gieseke

Tim Gieseke, the Independence Party candidate for the 19A race, is seeking to fundamentally change the discussion in the Minnesota Legislature.

His campaign has focused on his concept of "shared governance," which emphasizes partnership between the government and private businesses. He said private businesses can be used as extensions of the government at the local level, allowing more efficient approaches to areas the government is fundamentally less efficient at executing.

He said its part of a large movement into the future of improved direct access that allows businesses better abilities to connect with individuals and better collaborative efforts. In the case of education, he said the technological trend can lead to using media tablets to specialize schooling in classrooms and replacing traditional college layouts with online classes.

He also focused on presenting himself as able to push compromise suggestions during the heated Legislature debates. With Gov. Mark Dayton's tax proposals, he said he supported most of them but objected to the business-to-business tax for driving up costs and the over $100 clothing tax for not extending to all clothes, thus creating a true broadening and reducing of the state sales tax.

"Right now, they are making it sound like it has to be all Dayton's way, with all his proposals, or all the Republican's way, which is against all of the proposals. I want to say we can bring the best parts of both sides and make something that works,"

Not just a third wheel

Giesek has enjoyed active, engaged support from the state Independence Party and in the First Congressional District, even receive radio ad purchases on his behalf. But, his party's infrastructure fundamentally lags behind the two major parties in the essential part of modern campaigns: voter identification databases and "Get Out the Vote" networks. The result is Gieseke's hard work messaging falls on the whims of a individual voter's political predisposition, while the DFL and Republicans are spending the same time target specific voters most likely to have an impact on the Feb. 12 election with tailored messaging.

Gieseke also has to deal with the modern phenomenon in American politics of voters fearing "a wasted vote," where voters fear that voting for a third party only benefits the party opposite of the political leanings. DFL operatives have already written letters to area newspapers arguing a Gieseke vote would benefit Republicans.

Gieseke on legislative agenda

On gun control, he said he is open to many of the proposals and feels the emphasis needs to be on properly asserting background checks. He said he is skeptical about proposals for a gun ownership database, stating he feels unlikely it could properly executed due to its scale and that focus should be put towards something more productive.

On education, Gieseke said he strong supports investing in early education because of the positive results it generates throughout the education system. He said also wants to move towards using more media devices in classes to create lessons tailored towards each individual student based on their needs.

On same-sex marriage, Gieseke said he would vote for its passage on the grounds he strongly objects to people being limited in their ability to visit a significant other in the hospital. He said he feels the trend in the United States is towards its inevitable passage.